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March
2000
OPERATION
TAR PIT
In March 2000, the
DEA concluded Operation Tar Pit, which targeted a Mexico-based black tar
heroin trafficking organization. The investigation was carried out in
cooperation with the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the U.S.
Attorney's offices, and grew out of a DEA San Diego investigation that
began in June 1998. The San Diego investigation revealed that a trafficking
organization that was the source of much of the high-purity black tar
heroin being trafficked in the San Diego area had established distribution
cells in several other U.S. cities. Investigators also determined that
this organization had previously been the subject of a joint DEA/FBI investigation
in New Mexico in 1998.
Operation Tar Pit
was conducted by the DEA exclusively within the United States and specifically
targeted a black tar heroin trafficking organization based in Nayarit,
Mexico. Transportation and distribution cells of the Nayarit organization
had been established in cities across the United States, including: San
Diego, Los Angeles, and Bakersfield, CA; Chicago, IL; Reno and Las Vegas,
NV; Salt Lake City, UT; Nashville, TN; Corpus Christi, TX; Detroit, MI;
Atlanta, GA; Denver, CO; Phoenix, AZ; Honolulu and Maui, HI; Portland,
OR; Albuquerque, NM; Cleveland, Columbus, and Steubenville, OH; Anchorage,
AK; and Pittsburgh, PA; as well as in West Virginia, Minnesota, Alabama,
Kentucky, and New Jersey. As of June 2000, DEA, FBI, and state and local
law enforcement agents arrested nearly 200 individuals in 12 cities.
The investigation was linked to numerous heroin overdose deaths
in the small town of Chimayo, New Mexico, located approximately 90 miles
north of Albuquerque. Between 1995 and 1998, approximately 85 deaths in
Chimayo were attributed to high-purity, black tar heroin. In October 1999,
DEA and FBI agents in Albuquerque arrested approximately 33 individuals
in connection with this investigation. On March 22, 2000, the DEA in Albuquerque
subsequently arrested an additional 17 individuals connected to the Chimayo
cell.
Since October 1999,
agents have seized 41 pounds of heroin, with a street value of millions
of dollars. The heroin ranged in purity from 60 to 84 percent, even in
smaller (i.e., gram quantity) seizures. The high purity level is believed
to be responsible for the overdose deaths in Chimayo, New Mexico, as well
as more recent overdose deaths in several other cities.
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